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GNOME Terminal is an open source terminal emulator application, specifically designed for the controversial GNOME desktop environment. The irony is that its a graphical application that runs command-line commands.

The program is only the shell prompt, because the terminal emulation part is powered by the VTE widget. It empowers users to communicate with their system using text-based commands, via a UNIX shell, such as Bash or ZSH.

Features at a glance

With this application, users will be able to launch graphical applications, execute various commands, copy and paste text, add, remove and reorder terminal tabs, open web links and email addresses, search, view and edit keyboard shortcuts, and much more.

Its user interface is very basic, comprised only of the terminal emulator window and a main toolbar, from where users can open a new instance and tab, create a new profile, close the current tab or the main window, copy, paste and find text, as well as to set the character encoding and size of the window.

In addition, users can disable the main toolbar and switch the application to fullscreen. Profiles can be created with ease, by accessing the File menu or by going into the Profiles tab of the Preferences dialog.

Talking about the Preferences dialog, it can be used to set various options of the program, such as mnemonics, menu accelerator keys, keyboard shortcuts, and the encodings displayed in the application’s menu.

Another interesting feature is the ability to switch between different profiles in real time, using the right-click context menu in the main terminal window or by accessing the Change Profile entry in the Terminal menu.

Bottom line

The truth is that GNOME Terminal is probably the most used application of the entire GNOME desktop environment. You can basically do anything you want from the command-line, and this software is one of the best of its kind.